Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-11-24
sAlpwREck MEMEnros.
4 Sword That Has Been at the Bottom
the Sea Three Times.

-
the Sea Three Times.
A collection of mementos, fully as in
teresting in their way as the deodands
of the police. is to be seen at the Office
of the Merritt wrecking organization
from various wrecks, and of but little
intrinsic value, but each a silent wit
ness of some ocean disaster. Perhaps
the most interesting of these relics is
sword from the United States steamer
Tallapoosa, sunk in Vineyard sound in
1884. This sword has been rescued
from no less than three sunken vessels.
1t went down an the steamer Cairo at
Yazoo, Miss, in 1862. and was brought
up again and made fit for use, or atleast
for wear. It went down again in the
Conestoga, on the Mississippi, in 1868.
1t was again rescued from the wreck,
and polished up for use in the service.
Its final descent was with the Tallapoo-
sa- The navy authorities appear to
have concluded, when it was brought
up the last time, they had no more bus
mess with that particular sword, and it
was allowed to 60 to the wrecl<ers as a
memento of their work, and now the
weapon which had been intended for
gore, but which had shown such a pro-
pensity for water, reposes quietly in
Captain Merritt's private Office.
A lot of forks from the Narragansett,
with just sufficient silver plating to fuse
them together, recalls that terrible dis
aster by fire and flood, when many hu-
man beings were lost. including some.
probably, whose names will never be
known. A watch which had stopped at
twenty minutes past twelve O'Clock,
and which showed marks of damage by
heat and flame, pointed pretty aecur-
ately to the hour when destruction
came upon the vessel. Another inter-
esting curiosity is n bottle still con-
tanning seltzcr water. This bottle
was found in 1880 in a boiler of the
Rhode Island, wrecked near Narragan-
sett bay. The curious point was as to
how the bottle got into the boiler, for
the boilers of the vessel were surging
up and down, rising forty feet OF so in
the air. and then descending, under
the impulse of the powerful waves
which rolled against the cliff But
there the bottle was found intact, and
the scltzer still remains in it.
Then there,is piece of marble, act
ually worm-eaten, from the wreck of
the steamer Grecian, on Long Island,
in the winter of 1870. The portion of
the marble that was buried in the sand
is uninjured; the portion that was ex-
posed to the water is honeycombed.
Scientific men have examined this
piece of marble to ascertain whether
the holes were attributable to the ac-
lion of the water only or were perfor-
atoms made by animals. They came
to the conclusion that it was the work
of worms, whose cells could be seen in
the stone as distinctly as the cells in
the wood work of worm-eaten vessels.
A cannon-ball from the wreck of the
British War transport Hussar, sunk
near He'll Gate during the revolution
with q number of American prisoners
on board, is another curious relic. The
cannon-ball is so rust-eaten that
piece fell off while it was being shown
to the reporter. Large sums of money
had been expended in efforts to get at
q treasure reported to have been sunk
in the Hussar. The only treasure on
the Hussar consisted of the precious
lives that were lost with the ship. The
English Government was at that time
sending treasure to America to carry
on the war. instead of bringing any
from this side. This cannon-ball was
drawn up from the wreck through a
powerful siX-inch pump.
A singular memento is Bible saved
from the Oregon. 1t appears that the
Oregon had number of Bibles among
the cargo. One of these some reverent
diver decided to take with him, twenty
fathoms, to the upper air.-M. y. Iele-
gram.
The Young Duc d,Orleans son of |